Helping to foster an equilibrium for transport logistics ..................................................

The Ministry of Commerce in a statement has stated that there are different modes of transport competing with each other rather than complementing for the same CARGOTALK traffic. takes expert views on how this will exhibit efficiency and initiate a practi

Amit Kumar Director, Pristine Logistics

Facilitation of the perfect equilibrium amongst various modes of transport is a difficult task. There will always be competition as long as each mode has capacity to compete with each other. Having made this point, it is true that modal-complementarity is a desirable objective from the efficiency perspective. There are various efficiencies that this would create, namely, environmental efficiency, capital efficiency required for creating infrastructure, efficiency in infrastructure utilisation per se and, of course, efficiencies of the various modes themselves with potential of improved turnarounds with the idea of transferring cargo from one mode to the other where the first mode has natural bottlenecks. I believe, governmental intervention through the right regulatory framework and commercial incentivisation should be the right approach.

Rajiv K. Kochhar Vice President, C&O Worlds Window Infrastructure and Logistics

Presently, Indian Railways move 60 per cent of traffic on just 10 per cent of routes and have created competing demands for various modes of transport. This is because road and rail are competing for the same traffic, instead of complementing it. During recent years, the railroads have had to face intensified competition from several quarters. The automobile and motor trucks have made heavy inroads upon railway passenger and freight traffic. It is true that, railways are facing increasing competition from road transports. As for example, the share of road transport in respect of freight has increased from 11 per cent in 1950-51 to 58 per cent in 1985-86 and then declined to 40 per cent in 1992. But the share of railways in respect of freight has come down from 89 per cent in 1950-51 to 42 per cent in 1985-86 and then again increased to 60 per cent in 1992 and then remained almost the same in 2005-06. Although such competition has enhanced the level of efficiency and productivity but it has also generated various problems in the transportation system.

Factors which are mostly responsible for growing rail-road competition include: (a) Flexibility of time table of road transport as compared to railways; (b) Facilitating door-todoor service by road transport which the railways could not provide; (c) Time consuming system of booking and other formalities in railway which the road transport system are not adopting; (d) Higher operational cost of railways due to increasing expenditure on overheads as compared to lower operational cost of road transport; and (e) Increasing facility of route changing both for passenger and freight traffic under road transport as compared to railways. To remove wasteful competition, there should be proper rail-road co-ordination in the country so that one can supplement the other services accordingly for balanced growth of both the modes of transport.

Vineet Kanaujia Vice President – Marketing, Safexpress, India Cargo Award Winner

Intermodal transport is going to be the most efficient long-distance transport solution in the future. It essentially consists of all the modes including road, railway, sea and air. Road transport, the most common mode of transport, is typically divided into two parts – the road freight industry and the road passenger industry. Government has been working towards making railway transport as efficient as road transport, so that both can be linked together in a much simpler way. However, this requires huge investments in the development of infrastructure.

For transportation over long distances, road transport often gets competition from railway transportation as well as sea transportation. With the infusion of technology there is, however, a possibility of all the modes complementing each other rather than competing with each other. Each mode of transport has attributes that render them more suitable, and generally less costly, for particular transport tasks. There are, however, instances where road and railway transport are found to be competing and in other cases found to be used together as part of integrated logistics operations.

The technological evolution in the transport industry aims at adapting the transport infrastructures to growing needs and requirements. When a transport mode becomes more advantageous than another over the same route or market, a modal shift is likely to take place. A modal shift involves the demand augmentation of a transport mode at the cost of another, although it can involve an absolute growth in both of the concerned modes. It is important that the advantages of various transport modes are exploited in the optimal way, both individually as well as through integration with each other.

Akash Bansal Head – Logistics, Om Logistics, India Cargo Award Winner

I don’t feel there is any competing factor among the modes of transport in current situation in India. Competition happens when similar services are catered at similar prices which is not the case in India for modes available i.e surface/train and train. Every mode has a different USP and cost associated to it depending on the transit time requirements and we, as a multimodal organisation offer our customer with a preference to use any of the available services considering the cost and transit time as per requirement of business and criticalities.

If all the modes start complementing each other with the required standardised service offerings to reduce on in-efficiencies on the value chain, this would be a seamless business model for customers to utilise and catalyse their business with more optimistic cost and service offerings. The modes need to support and complement each other with focus on services for some bundled ones with thorough professional approach towards execution of it. We need to focus on how to make business hassle free for customers and be more flexible in providing solution, flexibilities within legitimate boundaries of law. This will change the way we do business in India and support the industry to grow in leaps and bounds. This can only be done with transparent collaboration of all stakeholders in business with a ‘to do’ approach. Hence, ‘there’s a will, there’s the way’ would be the right statement to make for such collaboration.

Piyush Tiwari Country Head, TKW

India has an integrated policy for multimodal and even though the government effort is to help attain a wholesome and friendly traffic environment, there are obstacles that stand in the way. The crucial component of any business is trust. It is not only competition, but insecurity of business also that comes into play. Until the government does not makes any stable policy to define the terms with participation from the fraternity, it would be not feasible. Without any integrated platform for people to join and think of becoming part to the logistics chain as per their expertise, there is no use of issuing the referred statement. We have so many exisitng groups and associations in India for our fraternity, but still trust and help is missing. This is because nobody wants to share the information of their business.

Hari Om Prasad Regional Head-Transportation, Haiko Logistics India, India Cargo Award Winner

It is true that different modes of transportation are being used for the same sector. Each of these odes have their own unique specialty. Cargo are different as per their quantity, dimensions, weight and nature. Some valuable cargo are moved by paying higher charges to ensure their safety while for other, lesser valuable material, a cheaper mode of transportation would be most suitable and preferred.To further substantiate my point, I would like to give the example of the railways which are not suitable for ODCs, which are best moved by road transportation as a preference. Sometimes, waterways comes out as a clear winner for moving ODCs and heavy loads wherever possible. It is all about a customer’s priorities, preferences and also related to the nature of the cargo. Every mode will get the preferred loads with best possible rates and may customise accordingly. Hence, different modes of transport can complement each other by using their specialities and relay the cargo from its origin to its destination, resulting in being most economical and efficient to achieve the desired goals even if they are on the same route. Multimodal transportation exists and is the way forward for tomorrow’s India.